Arlington Town (part 7 of 8)

(4) Joshua, s. of Ebenezer (1), settled about 1813 in Cincinnati, Ohio, and deceased Feb. 1832. He was one of the celebrated Boston Tea Party in 1773, and his account of his participation in that event to Rev. Timothy Flint, in 1827, the well-known writer on the Western Country, was reproduced in the Old and New, for January, 1874. At the time of the destruction of the British tea, in Boston Harbor, Joshua was a journeyman blacksmith in Boston, living Avith a tory master ; and owing to his being a young man not much known in town, and not liable to be easily recognized, it was proposed that he and other young men, similarly unknown, should lead in the business. Therefore he and his companions were dressed to resemble Indians, and their faces were smeared with soot or lampblack. Their most intimate acquaintances among the sjiectators "had not the least knowledge of them." "We surely resembled," says the narrator, " devils from the bottomless pit, rather than men."

From the correspondence of Joshua with his sister Anna Cutter, wfe find him at Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, on 9 Apr. 1801, where he and his son Elisha had come with rails. On their way their raft was stove twice, but they got oif .safely. From letters he had received, he was glad to hear of the welfare of his friends at Charlestown, and also of his grandmother, Mrs. Anna AVinship. His brother John AVyeth was postmaster at Harrisburg, and treated him well during this visit. In the way of family news, Sukey, daughter of Joshua, had a son. At his home at Nanticook, Penn., all were well, including his relatives Granny AVinship, Jabez Winship and wife. Allusion is made to his brother Gad Wyeth.

On 15 Sept. 1806, he was at AVoodstock, Vermont, on business. Mrs. Cutter was his only sister then living. He left Pennsylvania about 21 Aug. previous. He had heard of the death of his grandmother, Mrs. Anna AA^inship, which occurred on 2 Feb. 1806, at the age of 101. He was at Harrisburg about the 2.5th of July. In regard to family matters his daughter Susanna had had four children (boys), his son Elisha one child (girl), his daughter Harriet one child (boy), his son Joshua was not yet married. The father had given the lastnamed son fifty acres of land. His son George was free on 6 Oct. 1806. .

AVe find Joshua at Cincinnati, Ohio, on 19 Sept. 1813. He acknowledges the receipt of a letter from his sister, dated 17 Aug. previous, in which he was informed of '' the lightning" that struck her dwelling, but killed no one. He had huilt a house at Nanticook, Penn., before he left the place. Sickness drove him to Cincinnati. He had built him a convenient house there on Main Street, about lialf a mile from his first one. Ohio, he says, is a pleasant country, where he was contented, and v.'hcre he expects after a short time to get all his family. 'One of them with his -w ife had come a few days before, and had bought a good farm about thirty- Hvl' nulcs distant. This member had sent letters to those left behind in Susquehanna, to come on, as he had looked out for them, as desired, and thought not to take his wife back. The father had a good run of work, and "cash for it as fast as he could work " Provisions, grain, money and Avork were very plenty in the country. As to family matters, his son Francis was a " pretty good smith " ; a son Harry was " coming on " ; his daughter Fanny was twelve years old ; Ann, five and a half; AVilliam, two and a fourth ;. another child, three months.

Again we hear of him from the " City of Cincinnati," 16 Apr. 1827, by a letter carried by Mr. Frothingham. He was contented with his present surround- ings ; as much so there, as in all his " rovings on this globe." His family were agreeable, and provisions cheap as heart could wish. The past summer he had buQt another house (Mr. Frothingham would give information of the particulars) . He followed the market and trafficked in produce. Thelast winter he had made 6569 lbs. of sausages for sale. He at present traded in crockery- ware and et ccteras. People said he was a thrifty man. He stated, " You must know this has got to be a great city, full of every good thing but good men and women." His family consisted of five children by a second wife - viz. : Anna, 18 years; William, 16; Nelson, 12; Adeline, 10 ; "Amanda, 8. With his pension and earnings he lived very comfortably. He asked for news of brothers Ebenezer. Gad, Jacob and their families.

In a letter dated Cincinnati, 9 Sept. 1827, he says, "My children of the first crop have gone from me, from Dan to Beersheba." He knew nothing of them, excepting that George, Polly, Francis and Henry resided near the Susquehanna lliver in Pennsylvania, where he had formerly lived. His daughter Susanna had died about a year before near Lebanon, Ohio, and he thinks left nine children " to mourn her absence." Elisha and Joshua, his sons, now lived in Indiana, about forty miles from him. Where the rest were, he did not know. By the wife now living with him he has had six children (one then deceased) . William, the eldest, lived with the son Joshua. Three girls and one boy were living at home. He had finished a snug, small house. The country was. " to sum it in one word," in his opinion superior " to the land of Canaan of old, spoken of in Moses's law ! "

Grapes, peaches, apples, pears, plums and vegetables grew in abundance, and good pork, beef, veal, the best of mutton, and fish, both salt and fresh, were plenty. Pork and roasting beef were from one and a half to four cents per pound. He had more of these than he could sell. Good bacon was sold at any price to save the seller and make a little. His lot and house cost him about $1000. The canal from Cincinnati to Lake Erie was expected to be finished by the next summer - It was nearlv done in and about Cincinnati already. About three years before he was at Buffalo and Niagara Falls. Flour was from $1 to $1.50 a hundred. Corn meal from twelve cents to twenty- five cents a bushel. He wished to be remembered to Mr. Frothingham.

In 18 12 Joshua's children Elisha, Joshua and Francis Avere of Terrehaute, Ind. ; George, of Manchester, Morgan Co., 111. ; Henry, of Spring ToAvnship, Crawford Co., Penn. ; Eliza was wife of Peter King, of :Martinsville, Morgan Co., Ind. ; Hannah and Polly, unknown ; Fanny, of Springfield, Ohio ; William, of Cincinnati ; Nelson, of Terrehaute, Ind. ; Adeline and Amanda, of Cincinnati ; Susanna, Prentice and Nancy had been dead for some years ; and others believed to be dead. The brothers could not tell the precise mimber of their father's children at the date above given.

(i) Jacob, s. of Ebenezer (I), living at Cambridge in 1842, was proprietor of the iamous Fresh Pond Hotel, and father of the celebrated Rocky Mountain pioneer, Nathaniel Jarvis Wyeth, who was one of the most active and energetic men ever born in Cambridge. - See Paige, 705.

(6) Gad, s. of Ebenezer (1), living at McLean, Licking Co., Ohio, in 1842. He was located at AVendell. Mass., before 8 Sept. 1820. A letter to his sister Anna Cutter, dated at Wendell, 19 June, 1825, and mailed from New Salem, the adjoining town, contains some family particulars. His youngest son was David. Four of his children were living away from him in a section (name not given) where a revival of religion was in progress, and two of them (sons) had become converts. His only daughter went three hundred miles from him that winter, married Silas Stiles, Esq , and lived near Sackett's Harbor. He had about twenty head of cattle, two horses and many sheep. The stage ran three times a week by his house, and he was one of the proprietors. He mentioned brotliers Ebenezer, Joshua, John and, Jacob, the widow of Jonas, Aunt Weston, Mr. James Francis, his two sons Nathan and David, and a granddaughter Nancy.

3. Jabez, of Woburn, m. Lydia Winship 13 Jan. 1767. Had dau., stillborn, 22 Dec. 1767. He was s. of Jabez Wyman, of AVoburn, and was bap. in Woburn Second Pet. (now Burlington), 26 Dec. 1736. (See Bond's M^at, 976). The Rev. John Marrett, minister of Woburn Second Pet., in a letter to Rev. Isaiah Dunster, dated 28 July, 1775, states Jabez Wyman "used to work for Mr. Cooke;" which fact is borne out in a deed in the handwriting of the Rev. Samuel Cooke, where Jabez Wyman of Camb., " laborer," and wife Lydia in her right, sell to Ammi Cutter, miller, on 23 Mai'. 1773, three acres in Cambridge, bounded northeast on a road leading to part of Lexington. Jabez Wyman and his brother-in-law Jason Winship were both killed by the British in Cooper's Tavern, in Menotomy, on 19 Apr. 1775, the site where the Arlington House now stands. The troops fired more than a hundred bullets into the house on the afternoon of that day ; then a number of them entered and slew the two men named above, stabbing them through in many places, breaking their skulls, scattering their brains, &c. - Benjamin and Rachel Cooper's Deposition.

dau. of Henry Gardner, deceased, was bap. and adm. to the Pet. ch. 30 Mar. 1777, and Daniel, son of said Daniel and Lucy, was bap. here 13 Apr. 1777. Daniel had also a dau. Lucy, b. 16, bap. 27 June, 1779. See Book of the Lockes, 153.^

1 "1784 [epitaph 1785] Dec. 25. Daniel Wyman's wife died; 27th, buried." - Diary of Samuel Thompson, Esq., Woburn. Gravestone "Woburn 1st Burying Ground. Daniel Wyman d. 18 Dee. 1831, a. 80 ; and Hannah Wright, wile of Daniel Wyman, d. 8 Feb. 1841, a. 79 (gravestones Woburn 2d B. G.j.

In The War Of The Rebellion Soldiers In The War Of 18G1-18G5

1 Daniel Bennem, referred to on page 157 as one of the citizens connected with the Fifth Regiment, was probably the Daniel Benham, age 26, Co. E, credited to Medford; discharged June 29, '01, disability.

1 Eugene H. Freeman, on the Potomac about June 1, 1864, saw among the soldiers, " Thorpe," who used to work at the saw-factory. He had been In the navy, and his family lived in Philadelphia. He had enlisted again, and then belonged to the lS7th Pennsylvania. - Letters from Two Brothers, p. 118.

History Of Aiilington

2 Warren H. Freeriiaii, in April, 1802, saw Ciipt. Porter's (First) Battery, at Manassas, Va., and several of tlie niembeis from West Oanibritlge. The battery vv-as encamped for a long time near West Camb., and tlie commander was a son of the somen liat noted liotelkeeper in the vicinity. - Z,e<<ers from Two Brothers, pp. 22, 23; also see same, pp. 72, 73, for further meutiou.

Soldiers In War Of The Rebellion

Locke died in the service Sept. 22, 1862 (see p. 158 previous). Francis Gould received a ball in his knee Sept. 1, 1862, and died from its supposed effects Sept. 7, 1874 (see p. 253 previous). John B. Wiley was killed in battle. Gammon died of disease in the service. Greenlaw was killed in battle. John H. Hill died in prison at Richmond, Va., of wounds received at Fredericksburg, Dec. 13, 1862. Andrew Kenny was killed at battle of W^illiamsburg, May o, 1862. Ezra W Thompson was killed while on picket. The New York muster rolls examined do not give the place of residence of any, and we have depended on the statements of remaining members of the company for correction of the above list.

The following are said by members of the regiment to have belonged to the old company enlisted in West Cambridge, but were not residents of the town. They were all of Co. H, and enrolled June 27, 1861, at Yonkers, N. Y. Their names and ages were thus : George O. Ballon, 1st Lieut., 36; Ira Keyes, 2d Lieut., 38 ; Sewall B. Ellis, Corp., 21 (killed) ; Daniel C. Fletcher, Corp., 33 ; Patrick B^Tne, 25 ; Samuel A. Fish, 24 ; WUliam J. Flynn, 21 ; Phineas J. Jeffers, 27 ; George W. Lang, 22 ; Charles Smith, 28 ; Christopher Smith, 23 ; George Thompson, 22.

Miscellaneous

,321. Joseph P. Burrage, 2d Lieut., age 22, Thirty-Third Regiment Infantry (three years). May, 18, '63, credited to Cambridge. Killed Oct. 29, '63, Lookout Mountain, Tenn. A graduate of Harvard University in 1862. His remains -were brought home in December, 1863, and funeral services were held in the Orthodox Church, before the town authorities, and many relatives and friends. Rev. Mr. Cady preached a discourse on the occasion, which was afterward printed for gratuitous distribution at the expense of Mr. John Field.

323. Warren H. Freeman, Sergt., age 18, Co. A, Thirteenth Regiment Infantry (three years), Dec. 1, '61, credited to Boston. Transferred to Co. A, 39th Regt., July 14, '64. Discharged Sept. 13, '64, order War Dept.

A little book, entitled " Letters from Two Brothers serving in the War for the Union, to theu- Family at Home in West Cambridge, Mass." (Cambridge, printed for private circulation, 1871),' is deserving of high commendation. It is the record of Warren H. Freeman, who served as a soldier in the Thirteenth and afterward in the Thirty- ninth Massachusetts Regiments, and his brother Eugene H. Freeman, who was an engineer in the transport service, sons of Mr. J. I). Freeman. Warren H. joined Company A, 13th Mass. Regiment, in Maryland, on the third day after leaving home on Dec 1, 1861, and his first letter from the army is dated D ec. 21. He was then engaged in campaigning in Virginia. Received a corporal's warrant some weeks before April 13, 1863, was made prisoner at Gettysburg, Pa., first day of the series of battles July, 1863, and afterward paroled; promoted to sergeant, warrant dated July 1, 1864; transferred to Co. A, 39th Regt., and discharged Sept. 13, 1864, in the field, by reason of no vacancies existing in the regiment to which he was assigned. The letters of Eugene H. are confined to matters on the Potomac River and its neighborhood.

324. Chai-les C. Haskell, age 25, Co. I, Sixtieth Regiment Infantry (one hundred days), July 23, '64, credited to Boston. Drowned July 29, '64, Readville. Buried here.

325. Thomas Martin, age 22, Co. G, First Regiment of Cavalry (three years), Sept. 23, '61, credited to Charlestown. Died of Avouuds June 10, '63. Buried here, age 24 - monument.

326. George H. Sprague. age 30, Co. B, Forty-Third Regiment Infantry (nine months), Oct.11,'62, credited to Boston. Died March 27, '63, at Newbern, N. C. Buried here,

327. George Trask, age 18, Co. M, First Regiment of Cavalry (three years), Oct, 1, '61 - residence or place credited to rot given - transferred to Co. M, 4th Cavalry. (Died May 3, '62, Port Royal, S. C. - Family account and monument.')

328, Rev. Samuel A. Smith, minister First Congregational Parish, missionary to the army, died of a fever contracted at Norfolk, Va., on May 20, 1865, aged 36.

Soldiers In War Of The Rebellion

331. Eber Hill, Artificer, age 25, First Battery Light Artillery (three years), Sept. 6, '61, credited to Boston. Re-enlisted Jan. 3, '64, age 27, credited to Cambridge. Transferred March 12, '65, to 9th Battery. Discharged April 26, '65, supernumerary.

332. William II. "White, Corp., age 23, First Battery Light Artillery (three years), Sept. 13, '61, credited to Medford. Re-enlisted Jan. 3, '64, age 26. Transferred March 12, '65, to 9th Battery. Discharged April 26, '65, supernumerary.

334. Franklin E. Ford, Acting Ensign in the Navy, appointed Aug. 7, 1863, a native of Maine and a citizen of Mass. ; stationed on Steam Sloop Tuscarora in 1864, and on the Keystone State (3d rate) during 1865.

336. Samuel Gates, age 43, Co. E, Sixteenth Regiment Infantry (three years), July 12, '61, credited to Woburn. Discharged June 6. '62, disability. Samuel Gates (probably the same), age 46, credited to Charlestown, of the Veteran Reserve Corps, Aug. 1, '64,

341. William W. Snelling, age 33, Ninth Battery Light Artillery (three years), Aug. 10, '62, credited to Boston. Discharged March 14, '63, disability.

343. George P. Cotting, age 20, Co. F, Twenty-Fifth Regiment Infantry (three years), Oct. 10, '61, credited to Fitchburg; re-enlisted Dec. 18, '63, credited to Boston. Died Dec. 29, '64, at Annapolis, Md.

Charles H. Graves, formerly 1st Lieut, in the Fortieth N. Y. Regiment, born Mass. and appointed from Mass., was commissioned Assistant Adjutant- General of Volunteers, with the rank of Captain, Feb. 29. '64 ; Assistant Adjutant- General of Volunteers with the rank of Major, Jan. 15, '65. Brevet Colonel of Volunteers and Aide- de- Camp to Brevet Ttlnjor-General A. H. Terry. Entered the Regular Army as First Lieutenant in the Fourteenth Infantry, Nov. 29, '65. Captain, Thirty-Fourth Infantry, commissioned July 28, '66. Brevet Major and Brevet Lieiit.- Colonel of Regulars, March 2, '67. Captain " unassigned," discharged Dec. 29, 1870.

Committee, of Cambridge, 2 ; of Safety atMenotomy, April 18 and 19, 1775, 59, 60, 65; to confer with Cambridge relative to a separate town, 113; to inspect behavior of young people in church, 34

Cooke, Rev. Samuel, ordained pastor, 28 ; his death, 101 ; funeral expenses paid by Precinct, 103 ; his remarks fourth year after battle of 1775, 93 ; autobiography of, 89-92

Death, of a dwarf, 39 ; of Rev. Thaddeus Fiske, 240 ; of Daniel Townsend, of Lynnfield, atMenotomv, 19 AprU, 1775, 71, 72; of General Washington, 108 ; of Hon. Charles

First and second anniversary celebrations of the Battle of Lexington, 84, 85 ; First Congregational parish, 174; first armed resistance to British aggression as shown here, 48

General Index

Grant by certain inhabitants of Charlestown to President of Harvard College, 8 ; to West Cambridge, of all lands belongmg to the Proprietors of Cambridge, 20 ; to Widow Rolfe, to make a dam above old mill pond, 12, 14, 16

155, 163, 165 Likeness of the Rev. Mr. Cooke, 89 Locke School House, 165 Longevity in former times, 123, 148 Lumber yard, 130 Lyjm End men in action at Menotomy,

Resolutions of sympathy and greeting to Major A. S. Ingalls, and others, July 22, 1862, 157 ; on Washington J. Lane, April 4, 1864, 158, 159; relative to the alarming crisis in public afi'airs in 1809, 128

General Ixdex

Second or Northwest Precinct in Cambridge, boundaries, 2, 104 ; chmxh organized, and first minister settled, 25, 28, 29, 30, 90, 125 ; early preachers. 23, 24, 25 ; fifty years since founded, 46 ; first child baptized, 22 ; first preciact meeting, 21 ; incorporated as town of West Cambridge, 3, 114, 126; incorporated Avith part of Charlestown as the District of ^lenotomy, 3, 38, 39 ; meeting-house built, 23 ; meeting-house dedicated, 23, 24; new meeting-house, 110; preaching in, 21, 23 ; second minis- [ ter settled, 105, 106, 107 ; set oflf as a distinct parish, 2

^Ivstic Ponds, 7 State Records, 1, 2, 4, 38 St. John's Church, 179 St. Malachj^s Church, 179 Stone house on training field, 145 Stores in West Cambridge, 130 Stoves in meeting-house, 116, 117 Stranger found dead in woods, 33 Streets first lighted with gas by town,

Source changes here: from History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts, with Biographical Sketches of Many of Its Pioneers and Prominent Men, by Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton) Ed, published 1890; 19,666 words in this source stream.

Chapter Xiii

Arlington is, in e.xtent of territory, one of the smaller towns of Middlesex County. It lies in the southeastern part of the county ; is bounded by Winchester and Medford on the north, by Medford, Somerville and Cambridge on the east, by Belmont on the south and by Lexington on the west. It is about three miles in length and two miles in width. The western part of the town is hilly, Arlington Heights and Turkey Hill being the most prominent elevations, while the eastern end is level. There are two ponds o( considerable size - Mystic Pond, along the northern boundary, and Spy Pond, in the southern part of the town. Mystic River forms a part of the northeastern boundary, aud its tributary, Alewife Brook, separates Arlington from Cambridge aud Somerville. Vine Brook runs through the town from west to east for about two miles, and then turning to the north flows into Mystic Pond.

The hi.story of Arlington from the time when white men first set foot upon its soil naturally divides itself into four periods. First comes what may be called the period of settlement, lasting about a century, when Arlington was merely an outlying part ol (Cambridge, having a distinctive name - Menotomy - but no independent organization. The second period begins in 1732, when Menotomy became a separate parish of the old town. Then in 1807 the parish was incorporated as the town of West Cambridge and bore that name for sixty years. Finally in 1867 the present name was adopted, no change, however, being made in the organization of the town. It will be convenient to follow these natural divisions and speak of each period separately.

The boundaries of the town were early defined and remained without substantial change until nearly the middle of the present century. Soon after the settlement of Cambridge the inhabitants wished to extend the limits of their new town. They had land enough already, if its extent alone is considered, but much of it was forest and swamp. Land good for pasturage and farming was not so plenty, and there was some competition among the ditierent .settlements to obtain grants of such land from the General Court. Cambridge thus obtained - not to speak of the country south of the Charles - the territory now comprised in Arlington, Lexington and Burlington. The Legislature established the line of division between Cambridge and its neighbors on either hand, by extending the existing boundary lines eight miles back into the country. Accordingly the line between Cambridge and Charlestown, which formed the northern boundary of Menotomy, fell near the present course of Warren and Mystic Streets. The southern limit, the boundary between Cambridge and Watertown, ran from Fresh Poud through what is now Belmont at about the line of the Concord turnpike. The eastern boundary was a natural one - the Menotomy River, which we know as Alewife Brook. The western limit was not fixed until Lexington was set off from the mother town in 1712.

The territory thus marked out formed the district and parish of Menotomy and afterwards the town of West Cambridge. In 1842 it was increased by the annexation of the strip of Charlestown which lay between Mystic Pond and the ancient northern boundary. In 18.50 West Cambridge contributed a comparatively small portion of land along its northern boundary to help form the new town ot Winchester. In 1859 it suffered a serious loss of territory on its southern side, when Belmont was incorporated. The town was then reduced to its present limits.

Menotomy, the early name of the place, is an Indian name, the meaning of which is not certainly known. Probably it describes one of the natural features of the locality. The first settlers, doubtlei-s adopting the Indian designation, called the stream that now bounds the town on the east, and was even then regarded as the dividing line between Menotomy and the village of Cambridge, the Menotomy River. During the eighteenth century Spy Pond was sometimes called Menotomy Pond. " Menotomy '' went out of use when the town was incorporated as West Cambridge - a name that needs no explanation. Arlington is a name that has no historical meaning as applied to the place.

When the settlers in Cambridge began to push out to the westward they found the country thinly inhabited by the Massachusetts tribe of Indians. Over these reigned the widow of a former chief She was known to our ancestors as the Squaw-Sachem, or as the " Queen of the Massachusetts " when they chose to dignify her with a finer title. This potentate had taken as a second husband, one Webcowits, the prime minister or principal medicine man of the late king, but he, apparently, was never regarded as anything more than a kind of prince consort. The Squaw- Sachera held no very permanent court, but her chief dwelling-place seems to have been within the limits of Arlington, on those pleasant slopes that stretch down to the western edge of Mystic Pond. She early came into friendly relations with the Colonial government, and sold to the settlers - probably in the year 1638 - all the lands that she held within the bounds of their towns, reserving only her homestead by the pond. This purchase cost the town of Cambridge ten pounds in cash "and also Cambridge is to give Squa Sachem a coate every winter while shee liveth." Apparently the town was slow to fulfill the second part of the agreement, for, in 1641, we find the General Court enjoining Cambridge to give the Squaw-Sachem

" so much corn as to make up thirty-five bushels and four coats for last year and this." In March, 1644, in company with lour other chiefs, she formally submitted to the jurisdiction of the Colony. As a part of this transaction the five chiefs, in answer to questions, made a statement of their religious views, and one cannot help thinking that the condition of mind revealed by some of their responses must have proved rather puzzling to the Puritan theologians. For example, one answer runs: "We do desire to reverence ye God of ye English, and to speak well of him, because we see he doth better to the English than other gods do to others ; " and when questioned as to their willingness to refrain from labor on the Sabbath, they reply with a charming simplicity : " It is easy to them ; they have not much to do on any day and they can well take their ease on that day." The treaty was ratified with an exchange of presents, the Indians giving twenty-six fathoms of wampum and receiving five coats - two yards in a coat - of red cloth, together with a potful of wine. The Squaw-Sachem lived for many years after, the Cambridge people making various agreements to fence her land and to provide her with corn. She died not long before 1662, and with her royalty disappears from our local annals.

The proprietors of Cambridge began to grant farms in what is now Arlington as early as 1635. A highway was made from the little settlement in old Cambridge to the other little settlement in Concord - the street that we now know as Arlington Avenue. And in 1636 or 1637 the history of the town fairly begins, with the establishing of Captain George Cooke's Mill on Vine Brook. This Captain Cooke made a considerable figure in the colony. He came from England in 1635, at the age of twenty-five, soon became captain of the Cambridge Company in the militia, was selectman several years, served in the General Court more than once, and held other positions, civil and military, during the ten years he remained in this country. Returning to England, he became a colonel in Cromwell's army and lost his life in Ireland in 1652. It was he who varied the activities of an adventurous life by setting up the first mill in Cambridge, and in fact in the neighborhood, if we except a wind-mill in Old Cambridge, which would not grind unless the wind was from the west. Captain Cooke's mill was situated a short distance above the present mills of Samuel A. Fowle. The remains of its dam may still be seen, and Water Street bore the name of "Captain Cooke's Mill-lane" down to a time within living memory.

The establishment of this mill was a great boon to the settlers in the neighboring towns, and the early roads were laid out with reference to it. Thus in 1638 a road was laid out from Watertown, and a little later roads from Woburn and Medford, all ending at the mill. They are substantially the .same for the greater part of their course as our Pleasant, Mystic and Medford Streets. After Captain Cooke had abandoned the miller's trade in New England for the more stirring profession of arms in Europe, his mill seems to have fallen into decay. At any rate nothing but a few ruins remained when John Rolfe bought the estate of the captain's heirs in 1670, built a new mill, house and barn, and revived the business. After his death, in 1681, the property and business passed to his son-in-law, William Cutter, in whose family it has ever since remained.

With the exception of the roads and the mill, Arlington presented few traces of civilization for many years. Along the banks of the Menotomy River stretched the Great .Swamp. The labor and intelligence of more than one generation have since turned much of it into fruitful soil, but enough yet remains in its primitive condition to give us an idea of what the whole eastern end of the town was in the seventeenth century. Much of the land about Spy Pond also was swampy. The land was well wooded, but the town found it necessary, in 1647, to check reckless waste by forbidding persons owning land in Menotomy from cutting or taking away directly or indirectly any wood or timber on the easterly side of the road from the mill, to Watertown.

Slowly, one after another, spots of cultivated land began to appear in the midst of the wilderness of woods and swamps. In 1646 Henry Dunster, the first president of Harvard College, obtained some land by Menotomy River, lying within the limits of Charlestown, .lohn Adams lived near the present centre of Arlington and owned extensive tracts of land in the eastern end of the town. Other familiar names are found on the records - Dickson, Russell, Winship, Cutter - of men who settled here long before 1700. In 1688 twenty persons were taxed for person and estate as residents of Menotomy.

For a livelihood the people were mainly dependent on farming. Indian-corn was the principal crop, and the corn-fields were fertilized with the countless fish that swarmed in the Menotomy River and have given it its modern name. The alewives were caught by means of a weir which the General Court, in 1634, authorized the town of Cambridge to build, and were regarded as a most valuable kind of jtroperty. When, in 1676, two enterprising perauns obstructed the )>assage of the fish to the weirs, the town brought suit and had the validity of its privilege judicially determined. There was also good fishing in Spy Pond, and people journeyed from Boston and Charlestown to fish there. One summer day no less a person than the Reverend Cotton Mather came out to try his luck, and, like many amateur fishermen of later times, fell into the pond, "the boat being ticklish." History records that he received no hurt from his misadventure.

The Menotomy settlers took their part in the war that broke upon New England in 1G75 and furnished nearly a dozen men - -a large proportion of their whole number - to the little army that went out to fight King Philip. Five years later Indian warfare seems to have come nearer home, for we read in Judge Sewatl's diary, under date of July 8, 1680 : " Two Indians killed and several carried away by the Jlohawks from Spy Pond at Cambridge : it was done about one in the morn." With these exceptions they lived undisturbed by the savages.

Little more can be said as to our early settlers. In whatever public events they engaged they took part as citizens of Cambridge, and their acts are a part ol the history of Cambridge rather than of Arlington. They were doing the same monotonous hard work that was going on in so many New England communities of that time - gradually turning a savage wilderness into a place fit for the habitation of civilized men.

It was in 1732 that the second period of our history began with the setting apart of Menotomy as a separate precinct or parish. The feeling had for some time been growing among the people that they should have a meeting-house of their own and a minister dwelling among them. In 1728 some of them had petitioned the town of Cambridge to consent to a division, but they failed to obtain their request, - the town taking the reasonable ground that it did not appear that half of the inhabitants of Menotomy desired the change. With the persistence characteristic of those who have set their hearts on dividing a town, they tried again iu 1728 ; petitioned the General Court in June, 1732 ; had their petition rejected in November ; renewed it the next month and succeeded at last in obtaining favorable action. On December 27, 1732, the northwest part of Cambridge was set ofl as a distinct precinct, and its inhabitants vested with " all the powers, privileges and immunities that other precincts within the Province do, or by law ought to enjoy."

In order to understand the importance of this action, we must call to mind exactly what a precinct was. It was the same thing as a pariah, - the words are used interchangeably, - but a parish then was not a collection of persons voluntarily uniting to support public worship. It was a territorial division - a certain extent of land - like a county, a town, a school district or a ward. It might be co-extensive with a town, it might comprise part of a town or it might be made up of parts of two or more towns. It had the duty of maintaining a meeting-house and supporting a minister, and every man living within it was just as much subject to be taxed for these purposes as he was for the support of highways and bridges. However cordially he might dislike the institutions of religion, he could no more escape paying his share towards their maintenance than ho could avoid doing his part towards keeping the roads in order. On the other hand, he had an equal voice with his fellow-parishioners in the management of the parish affairs. Hence an ancient parish, in its structure, closely resembled a town, and when, as happened in Arlington, a parish was incorporated as a town, the transition was an easy one. The inhabitants of the new town were merely obliged to apply to a somewhat wider range of subjects the system to which they were already accustomed.

The inhabitants of the new precinct met together in their school-house, January 29, 1733, and John Cutter then began his long service of thirty-two years as parish clerk. They soon completed their organization by electing three assessors, a collector, a treasurer and a prudential committee of five. They invited their neighbors in that narrow strip of Charlestown which lay between the new parish and Mystic Pond to join them in settling a minister. As it was obviously much more convenient for these Charlestown people to attend public worship in Menotomy than in the distant meeting-house of their own town, an arrangement was made, and confirmed by the General Court, whereby they became united with the new parish, although continuing, in other respects, citizens of Charlestown.

And now our ancestors set about building their meeting-house. The site was not far to seek. Out of the common land that lay near the junction of the Watertown and Concord roads a portion had been reserved as a burial-place, although probably it had not yet been used for that purpose, and here it was decided to build the meeting-house. The building was to be forty-six feet long, thirty-six feet wide and twenty-four feet between the joists, and was to have a belfry; and the sum of three hundred pounds was appropriated to pay for it. Meanwhile the people met for public worship in their school-house, various ministers of the neighborhood conducting the services. Rev. John Hancock, of Lexington, baptized Thomas Osborn here April 1, 173-1, " the first child baptized in the congregation at the school-house in Menotomy."

The meeting-house was raised in the spring of 1734, and we may suppose there was a certain amount of festivity on the occasion, since the precinct appropriated the sum of twenty-three pounds " to defray the charges of provisions ; " but it was not ^ntil February 1, 173.5, that it was opened and consecrated. The building .stood nearly on the spot now occupied by its successor, but faced southeast. The pulpit stood against the northwest wall and the main entrance was directly opposite, at the other end of the broad aisle. In each of the other sides was a door. A portion of the floor was divided into eighteen pew lota, all of which were sold, except that to the right of the pulpit, which was reserved for the minister's pew. The prices of these pew lots varied from £14j down to £5X ; the two nearest the main door and the one to the left of the pulpit being apparently deemed most desirable. On these lots were built the high square pews, wherein sat the owners with their families - the leading and prosperous people of the place. The more humble worshippers sat on benches placed upon that part of the floor not taken up with pews, or in the gallery which extended around three sides of the meeting-house. The men sat on one side of the broad aisle and the women on the other, and a like division was made in the galleries. A committee appointed by the parish assigned the seats, and they were instructed to take into account " persons' pay and age."

Such were the main arrangements in regard to meeting-house and congregation. But as yet there was no church organization and no minister. The latter deficiency our ancestors earnestly set about supplying, but it was more than four years before they succeeded in their effort. They called in the neighboring ministers more than once for counsel and assistance. On two occasions they set apart days of fasting and prayer when solemn public exercises were held. But whenever they had chosen a minister whom they judged of suitable character and qualities, their hopes were destined to disappointment. At last, after four persons had successively declined their invitation, they chose Samuel Cooke to be their minister. Mr. Cooke was chosen May 21, 1739. He considered the invitation with care and accepted it in a letter dated June .30th - a letter exhibiting that combination of practical forethought and of religious feeling characteristic of the man. He tells his people that he shall expect them to make allowance for the continued depreciation of paper currency; that he depends upon the kindness commonly shown to minister.*, particularly as to building and fire-wood ; and accepts their summons, " relying upon the Divine Grace for support and assistance, and recommending you and all your affairs to the Divine conduct."

The church was established on the 9th of the following September, the men signing the covenant and the women giving their consent by standing up as their names were called. In all there were eightythree church-members. Many of the names affixed to that roll have a sound not at all unfamiliar to our ears, - Russell, Swan, Cutter, Adams, Winship, Fillebrown, Locke, Hall, Frost, Prentice and the rest - the founders of the families that have played so large a part in the life of the community. John Cutter and John Winship were made deacons. The First Church in Cambridge gave £25 towards furnishing the communion table - a gift especially gratifying to the new church.

Samuel Cooke was thirty years old when he came to his work in Menotomy - a work he was to lay down only with his life forty-five years later. The son of a Hadley farmer, he spent his boyhood on the farm and went to college at a much later period in life than was common in those days. He was graduated at Harvard tJollege in 1735, kept school for a while, went back to Cambridge, where he wiis employed in the college buttery for more than a year, then instructed Colonel Royall's son at Medford, and finally, after another stay at college, began his ministerial career - preaching for six months each in Marlborough, Roxbury and Menotomy. The new minister's " settlement" was fixed at £2(50 in bills of the old tenor or an equivalent amount in bills of the new tenor - neither of which kinds of currency was worth nearly its face value. His salary was to be £190 a year with such additions as might come from contributions not destined for other purposes. During his long pastorate his salary varied from time to time - noticeably during the War of the Revolution - but as the reckoning was sometimes made in paper and sometimes in coin, the variation was more apparent than real. In 1751 the amount was fixed at £60 in lawful money; a few years later it became £70; then in 1775 it was raised to £75 and it seems never to have been much more. Even this scanty sum was raised with difficulty. The collectors apparently found it hard to get in all the dues Special contributions had to be taken up from time to time for the minister's support, and when he died the parish was indebted to him in a considerable sum. We ought not to attribute these facts to any lack of generosity on the part of our ancestors ; they were evidently a result of their poverty.

In 1740 Mr. Cooke bought of Jason Russell an acre of land situated on theWatertown Road, next to the burial-ground, and here he built his house, his people furnishing much of the material and doing a good deal of the work. It was a substantial, comfortable dwelling, placed well back from the road, and was .still standing twenty years ago.

The parish was now fairly started and for many years little of importance appears upon its records. The population was evidently increasing, for we find that it was necessary to put more seats into the meeting-house. In 1747 an efl^ort was made to replace some of the seats on the floor with pews, but this attempt was stoutly resisted and it was not until 1755 that new pews were added. At the same time it was voted that there should be new seats over the gallerystairs for the negroes to sit in. A committee was appointed in 1747 "to inspect the behavior of young persons in our meeting-house on Sabbath days," and any persistent mischief-maker was to be marched into the main aisle and made to stand there throughout the service. As we hear nothing more of the committee after a year, we may, perhaps, assume that the terrors of so public a penance produced a speedy reformation.

While the manners of youth on the Salibath were thus looked after, their week-day education was not neglected. There was a school-house in Menotomy when the precinct was first set off, but it seems not to have been suitable for its purpose, for the parish voted, in 1743, to keep the public school near the meeting-house after a convenient house was erected, and three years later the town made an appropriation to help defray the charge of building a new school- house. This school was of a grade considerably below that of a grammar school of the present day, and was kept for a few weeks in winter. It was supported by the town, but the appropriatiou was usually placed in the hands of the parish. In 1768 it was voted that a grammar school or " man's school " should be kept for fourteen weeks in the winter, and that there should also be four " women's schools." The system thus established lasted some years.

The care of the church and the school formed substantially all of the public business of the parish. But the people were not satisfied with this, and desired an entire separation from Cambridge. Accordingly they petitioned the General Court, in 1762, that they and certain of their neighbors in the adjacent towns might be incorporated as a town or district. The Legislature voted to incorporate the petitioners from Menotomy and Charlestown as a separate district, but annexed certain conditions to the grant. The Menotomy people made some unsuccessful eiforts to induce the Legislature to alter the terms, but, nevertheless, voted to accept the act of incorporation as it stood.

A district had all the powers of a town except in one respect. Every town had a right to send a representative to the General Court, but a district did not have that right. The Governors much disliked to give their assent to the formation of new towns, for a new town implied a new legislator who was only too likely to set himself in opposition to the representatives of the King. The same objection did not apply to a district, and hence the device of forming a district instead of a town was not uncommon at that period. Menotomy, therefore, became a separate municipality in 1762. Upon their failure, however, to obtain any alteration in the terms of incorporation, the people apparently concluded that, on the whole, it was not worth while to take any advantage of the act, and so continued to act as before as a parish of Cambridge.

The foregoing are the principal public acts of the ])arish. Of the every-day life of the people few memorials remain. We know that they were for the most part farmers, and their farms were usually of considerable size. There were several taverns in the place - a circumstance which we ought not to regard as reflecting at all on the industry or sobriety of our since these houses of entertainment were required by the farmers from the inland towns, who used to drive their teams laden with produce down through Menotomy and Old Cambridge on their roundabout way to Boston. Along the brook where their successors stand to-day, were situated several mills - grist-mills and saw-mills - belonging to members of the Cutter family, whose lauds comprised much on the northwestern part of the parish. Many of the families of the place were connected by marriage ; they were of the same race and the same religion ; there was no great wealth among them and no great poverty. They lived a hard-working life, somewhat isolated, a good deal dependent upon one another for 12-iii society, with few amusements. Outside njatters affected them little. A few of them served in the French and Indian War under Capt. Thomas Adams, a Menotomy man. These took part in the Louisbourg expedition of 1758, and all came back safely except one, who died of sickness. Parson Cooke did not fail to preach a sermon on the occasion of their return. He often took notice in that way of important current events - a common custom among the clergy of that age. For the most part the years seem to have gone by monotonously enough until at last the diiy came when History passed through our streets, and the quiet country people took their place among those who were finst to face death in defence of the liberties of a nation.

They were not without warning of the coming storm. Again and again during the dark years that preceded the outbreak of war did their minister speak to them worjs glowing with the spirit of resistance to oppression. He found in Scripture many analogies to the events that were passing before his eyes. To him the Roman tyranny in Jerusalem was as the British rule in Boston, and the publicans that served Caesar were the prototypes of the instruments of George the Third. His people were not deaf to his appeal. The younger men were organized into an " alarm-list company " enlisted as " soldiers in the Massachusetts service, for the preservation of the liberties of America," ready to act when the order came. Benjamin Locke was their captain, and his list of the members of the company, about fifty in number, is still extant.

On the 17th day of April, 1775, the Committees of Safety and of Supplies adjourned from Concord to meet at Wetherby's Tavern in Menotomy. This inn, also known as the Black Horse Tavern, stood on the northern side of the main road about half a mile below the meeting-house. The two committees, to whose hands was intrusted the direction of the patriot cause in the Province, met hereon the 18th. Three of them, Elbridge Gerry and Colonels Orneand Lee, remained, intending to stay overnight. They were warned that there was an unusual number of British officers about in Cambridge, and Gerry was so impressed with the idea that trouble was brewing that he sent a messenger to John Hancock, then at Lexington, to put him on his guard. At about two o'clock the next morning the three members were aroused from their sleep to find the road filled with British regulars marching by towards Lexington. As the centre of the column was passing, they saw by the bright moonlight an officer and a file of men coming towards the house. They escaped, half-dressffd, from the back of the building into an adjoining corn-field. Flinging themselves on the ground and protected from view only by the cornstalks left standing from the previous season, they fortunately escaped the observation of the soldiers. These searched the house, but had to go on without making the coveted capture of three of the rebel leaders.

his friends so rude an awakening were about eight hundred in number, made up of light infantry, marines and grenadiers. Lieutenant-Colonel Smith commanded them. Embarking at the foot of Boston Common in boats which carried them to what is now East Cambridge, they had there landed, and after floundering across the marshes struck intq the old Charlestown road. They entered the Concord road in North Cambridge, and from that point their way lay straight before them through Menotomy and Lexington to their destination - the stores of supplies collected by the patriots at Concord. The destruction of these was the object of the expedition. To effect that object, secrecy and despatch were absolutely essential, and the column moved rapidly and noiselessly on.

Notwithstanding their caution, the movement of so considerable a body of men could not escape notice. An hour or two earlier Paul Revere had galloped across from Medford and given the alarm in the upper part of the precinct as he rode towards Lexington. Some of the Menotomy people were aroused by the stir in the street as the soldiers marched by. Solomon Bowman, the lieutenant of Captain Locke's company, upon going to his door, was asked by one of the British soldiers for a drink of water. He refused, asking in turn, " What are you out at this time of night for?" He spent the rest of the night in warning his company.

When the troops reached the centre of Menotomy, their commander was convinced that a sudden and secret attack could no longer be hoped for. The night was already astir with the sound of distant guns and bells that told him the country was rising. He sent back a messenger to General Gage, at Boston, asking for reinforcements, and sent forward Major Pitcairn with six companies of light infantry to secure -the bridges at Concord, while he followed more leisurely with the rest of the detachment.

The column marched on through the parish unmolesting and unmolested. Atone place their approach broke up a very untimely game of cards. At another they opened a stable, but, fortunately for the owner, the horse had been lent. At another house, where a light was burning, a soldier who inquired the reason was given the satisfactory explanation that the wife was making some herb tea for her sick husband. In fact, the dose was of a far different kind; for pewterplates were there being melted into bullets.

The soldiers disappeared up the Lexington road, but they left behind them in Menotomy a community that was fully aroused and ready for its work. At daybreak Captain Locke's company met on the green beside the meeting-houee and straightway marched to Lexington. The women and children were sent to places at a distance from the Concord road. Many persons concealed their silver and pewter.

The morning wore away quietly enough. Towards noon the road was again glittering with British bayonets. Smith's appeal for aid had been answered : Lord Percy was sent at the head of three regiments of infantry and two divisions of marines - in all about twelve hundred men - to reinforce the first detachment. Marching out through Roxbury, he was delayed for a little while at Brighton Bridge until the planks, which had been taken up, could be replaced. Then he kept on without further hindrance through Cambridge and Menotomy. But the injury to the bridge gave more serious trouble to a convoy of supplies and provisions that followed his column. Before the wagons could be brought over, the soldiers were far ahead. The convoy was further delayed by a mistake as to the road, so that by the time it reached Menotomy, Lord Percy was a considerable distance in advance. News of its approach preceded it. A few of the Menotomy men met in Cooper's Tavern and resolved that these supplies should be captured. There were about a dozen men in all - exempts, as they were called, too old to be included among the minutemen, although, so far as appears, by no means of very advanced years. The two Belknaps were there - Jason and Joseph - James Budge, Israel Mead, Ammi Cutter and David Lamson. The latter, our traditions say, commanded the party. Others have it that Rev. Phillips Payson, of Chelsea, was the leader. It seems not improbable that in such a band, collected at a moment's notice, no man was captain more than another. They hastened to take their position behind a bank wall of earth and stones just opposite the meeting-house. When the convoy arrived opposite, escorted by a guard of soldiers, our men ordered them to surrender. The drivers whipped up their horses. The exempts fired, killing several horses and one or two of the men and wounding others. The drivers and surviving soldiers scattered and ran across the fields to Spy Pond, and local tradition delights to tell how six of them surrendered to one Mother Batherick, whom they encountered near Spring Valley. The party at the road took possession of the abandoned wagons. They had done a greater thing than they thought ; for they had made the first capture of the War of the Revolution. But as they looked at the matter, they had been engaged in . shooting down the King's .soldiers upon his highway, and they felt a not unreasonable dread of what might happen if any signs of the conflict should be left when the British came back. Accordingly they dragged the wagons into the hollow behind Capt. William Adams' house. The living horses were driven to Medford and the dead ones carried to afield near Spring Valley.

The adventures of the exempts were by no means over. As some of them were going home they met and captured, near Mill Street, Lieut. Edward Thornton Gould, of the " King's Own " regiment, who had received a wound in the ankle at Concord Bridge,

It is the duty of others to tell what happened that day in Lexington and Concord. Captain Locke's meu were there, with their comrades from the other towns, taking their part in the hard fighting that made the retreat of the regulars through Lexington so full of peril. Lord Percy's reinforcement met Smith's exhausted men at about two o'clock, and, after half an hour's respite, the march was resumed, and the borders of Menotomy were soon reached.

Any one who looks down upon the town from Arlington Heights or Turkey Hill can understand how the tight was fought. From the Lexington line to the Foot of the Rocks the land rises to a considerable height on each side of the road. Farther down, until nearly to the centre of the town, the hills on the right rise more gently, while to the left the land falls away to Vine Brook. Below the centre is level land - Menotomy Plains they then called it - stretching to the eastern boundary.

All through the first part of the afternoon's fighting our people were generally on ground higher than the road, and came into hand-to-hand conflict only with the British flanking-parties. Later they did not have this advantage of position, and the fighting that took place below the centre of the town seems generally to have been sharper and at closer quarters than that above.

It could not have been long after three o'clock when the British re-entered Menotomy. The fire to which they had been exposed slackened a good deal as they marched through the wooded country above the Foot of the Rocks. But as they reached the comparatively open ground at that point the battle was resumed. Other enemies than those who had followed them so persistently were at hand. All that morning had men been hurrying in from every side toward the scen'e of the conflict. Not merely from Woburn and Medford, from Old Cambridge and Charlestown, but from Roxbury and Dorchester, Danvers, Salem, Beverly and Lynn and other distant places had they come; and from behind houses and barns, stone-walls' and fences they poured in their fire upon the column that was hastening down the highway.

Percy showed himself a worthy descendant of the race of soldiers from whom he came. He was now in command of the whole British force. He had placed at the head of the column the grenadiers and light infantry, - the remnant of Smith's detachment. Next came his wounded, carried in wagons, and finally, in the rear, bis own fresh troops. From the latter, also, were made up strong flanking-parties, that marched to right and left of the road, parallel with the main body, and protected it by threatening the flank of the parties of Provincials that skirted the highway.

dential term had just come to an end. One may fancy the disgust of the Federalist minority that this very unambiguous set of resolutions should go out as the voice of the town. However, they could muster but eight dissenting votes, and it was further voted that the resolutions should be published in the party newspapers, where no doubt they broughtjoy to the heartsof all good Republicans.

f^or the next two or three years the country was drifting towards war, and a strong military .spirit was aroused. The West Cambridge Light Infantry was organized in 1811 and took part in a volunteer muster that occurred in the town that year. A fort was built, garrisoned by a company which represented British troops, was attacked by the American forces, and captured after a desperate struggle. In another year came the second war with Great Britain. The town voted to pay ten dollars per month and five dollars bounty to each non-commissioned officer and soldier from West Cambridge in the service. Later in the war the allowance was increased, and then the increase was cut off. The war had little direct effect upon the town, except in 1814, when there was a scare as to a threatened British attack on Boston, and a large number of volunteers went into training to resist the invaders, who never came.

In 1816 measures were taken to protect the town against loss by fire. The selectmen were authorized to get fire-ladders and hooks, fire-ward staffs and such other fire implements as they deemed necessary. These were kept in different parts of the town, some of them in the cellar of the raeeting-house. There was already a little hand fire-engine - the " Friendship " belonging to individuals and kept in a house near the centre - but apparently of no very great service, since we find the town voting in 1820 to buy an engine on condition that the engine company would transfer their house and fire implements to the town. This burst of energy in relation to protection from fire seems not to have been without cause, for in 1817 the town found it necessary to ofler a reward of $500 - a large sum for a town the yearly expenses of which were only about $3000 - for information as to persons setting fire to buildings or to combustible matter which might endanger buildings. The special committee that advised this action made at the same time certain other recommendations aimed at the vices of gambling and drunkenness. The committee advised and the town voted that the selectmen should see that the laws against gambling were rigidly executed and that they should make a list of all persons who were in the habit of excessive drinking or wasting time and property thereby, should place the list in the hands of all licensed persons and forbid them to sell intoxicating liquor to anybody on the list. The plan was certainly ingenious, although one is hardly disposed to envy the task of the selectmen in deciding who of their fellow-townsmen should go on the list of topers.

While making such laudable efforts to suppress crime and excess, the towns-people were not forgetful of those institutions that make for intelligence and morality. In each of the four districts into which the town was divided a school was kept, taught by a man in winter and by a woman in summer. The little children especially attended the summer school, while the older ones came to the master's school at a season when out-door work on the farms had largely to cease. Therequirement foradmission into the "man'sschool" was not very severe - an applicant need only be able " to read in words of two syllables by spelling the same." The oversight of the schools was first placed on a settled basis in 1827, when a general School Committee of three members was chosen, with a Prudential Committee of four - one from each district - to act with them. Before this time the custom had varied. Sometimes the selectmen had formed part of the School Committee - at other times a separate board was appointed. Teachers' salaries were not exorbitant. Usually about $600 were appropriated for salaries, which gave to each district $150, more or less, of which the master was apt to get the lion's share.

The older people found a means of improvement in the books of the West Cambridge Social Library. This institution was founded in 1807, a very few months after the incorporation of the town. It was a proprietors' library - one of a class not uncommon at that time, when circulating libraries were rare, and free public libraries practically unknown, but not often to be met with now in Massachusetts - the most conspicuous surviving example being the Boston Athenaeum.

The library was a corporation wherein each member held a share, for which he paid five dollars, and upon which he paid an annual assessment of one dollar. With the money thus obtained, the library was founded and kept up. It was not in any sense a public institution ; the books were for the members and their families alone, and a heavy fine was imposed if a proprietor should lend a book to any one outside his own household. Many of the most respectable and intelligent citizens took shares. Each proprietor was at first allowed to take one book at a time, but this number was afterwards increased, as the library became larger. The length of time for which a book could be retained varied, but a consideration was shown to slow readers, which they do not often get at the hands of the managers of modern libraries. For example, a member might have twenty-five days to read " Gay's Fables " and thirty-five days for " Paradise Lost.'' He might reflect upon "Pilgrim's Progress "for forty days if he saw fit, and was allowed seventy days to struggle with " Ferguson's Astronomy." Notwitlistanding this liberality in th5 matter of time, the rec ords of fines show that the Social Library had its full proportion of laggard book-borrowers. And it is not surprising that hard-working men took acme time to go through the solid pages of fine print that made up most of the volumes. The books were well selected, - probably by Rev. Mr. Fiske, who was the clerk of the corporation - but there was not much light reading in them. A few histories, Rollin, Gibbon, Hume, Robertson - biographies of Washington, Franklin, Putnam - -books of travel, as "Capt. Cook's Voyages" orBruce's " Travels in Abyssinia." - these will give an idea of the quality of the greater part of the collection. A few essayists were represented in the library, several poets, hardly a novelist. The scarcity of American writers is noticeable; at that time there were few of them. But with all its unlikeness to a modern catalogue, one cannot examine the lists of the books of the West Cambridge Social Library without an added respect for the people who turned to such serious and wholesome reading as the employment of their leisure hours. The library continued to exist until after the establishment of the Juvenile Library described below.

Some other events of this period m.ay be more briefly dismissed. An almshouse was built in 1817. Before that time the poor were boarded out, or were aided by the town at their own homes. About $700 was spent for the support of paupers in the year 1810 -11, and nearly $800 in 1815-16. The almshouse stood on land bought of Josiah Whittemore, near the site of the Black Horse Tavern. It was used until the present almshouse was built, in 1853, was then sold at auction and continues to be occupied as a dwelling-house. In 1812 the town obtained the exclusive right of disposing of the privilege of taking the shad and alewives in the ponds and streams within its limits, - a grant which was revoked by the Legislature in 1823. In 1821 West Cambridge was placed under the operation of an act, passed in 1789, which provided for the regulation of the shad and alewife fishery in Mystic River and its tributary ponds and streams ; and thereafter preservers of fish were regularly chosen.

[n 1823 we find the town taking measures against the danger of an epidemic of small-pox, by authorizing the selectmen and overseers of the poor to contract with some person to inoculate all inhabitants who wished with the cow-pox - the expense to be not over twenty-five cents for each patient.

West Cambridge was honored in the following year with the presence of Lafayette, who passed through on his way to Lexington, .September 2d. No formal exercises were held here. Two arches, with appropriate inscriptions, were thrown across the road, and the whole population - men, women and children - assembled by the meeting-house to cheer the veteran as he went by.

In 1835 the town received a legacy of $100 from Dr. Ebenezer Learned, of iPopkinton, New Hampshire, to establish a juvenile library. Dr. Learned was by birth a Medford man, a graduate of Harvard College in the class of 1787, and afterwards a practicing physician at Leominster, Massachusetts, and Hopkinton, New Hampshire. Himself a man of learning, he was devoted throughout his life to the advancement of education, and took an active part, without any selfseeking, in the promotion of many good causes. Holding a high rank in his profession, he found time for outside pursuits, which he believed would bring benefit to the community. Thus he was active in the formation of the New Hampshire Agricultural Society, and was one of the founders of Hopkinton Academy. He had taught school in Menotomy when he was a student in college, and had doubtless often thought how few were the books to which children had access ; and when he came to consider to what use the savings of many industrious years were to be applied, he resolved that among his other benefactions he would do something for the benefit of the school-children of West Cambridge. He states his purpose in his will : " In consequence of a grateful remembrance of hospitality and friendship, as well as an uncommon share of patronage afibrded me by the inhabitants of West Cambridge, in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, in the early part of my life, when patronage was most useful to me, I give to the said town of West Cambridge $100 for the purpose of establishing a juvenile library in said town. The Selectmen, Ministers of the Gospel and Physicians of West Cambridge, for the time being, shall receive this sum, select and purchase the books for the library, which shall be such books as in their opinion will best promote useful knowledge and the Christian virtues among the inhabitants of said town who are scholars, or by usage have a right to attend as scholars in their primary schools. Other persons may be admitted to the privileges of said library under the direction of said town, paying a sum for membership, and an annual tax for the increase of the same."

Dr. Learned's intention is entirely clear. He had no thought of founding a library which should not Ijelong to the town, or the management of which in years to come should be in any way restricted or taken out of the hands of the town. He wanted to be sure that the books bought with his bequest should be well selected, and hence he appointed those who, from their position in the community, might be assumed to be trustworthy men. After his legacy had been expended, the. duties of bis nominees would end, the library would belong to the town, and he evidently believed that the town would cheerfully bear the small expense of managing it, as he left nothing for that purpose. For its increase he relied upon the fees that adults might pay under the town's direction, as his will provides.

The selectmen, ministers and physicians met November 30, 1835, and voted that the books selected for the library should be such as were directed by the will of the donor, - "the same not being of a sectarian character " - and then proceeded to spend more than four-fifths of the legacy for books. When this was done, however, instead of handing over the collection of volumes to the town, that it might take whatever action it saw fit in regard to the future management of the library, the selectmen, ministers and physicians continued to control it, and, in fact, remained in charge of it till 1878. This came about naturally enough, as the library was small for many years and could be as well managed in this way as in any other. So, without any formal act on the part of the town, this arrangement was acquiesced in by common consent. Although the managers styled themselves " Trustees of the West Cambridge Juvenile Library," yet they recognized in their accounts and in their frequent reports to the town that they were simply agents of the town and not an independent body - a fact also recognized by the town, which, at one time, added the School Committee to their number.

In 1836 the West Cambridge Sewing Circle gave the sum of sixty dollars to the library, and in return were granted the privilege of taking books for a nominal yearly fee. A more important thing happened in 18.37, when the town voted at the March meeting that thirty dollars be appropriated annually for the increa.se of the Juvenile Library. The trustees passed a vote at their next meeting " that, in consideration of thirty dollars annually appropriated by the town for the increase of the Library, that each family in the town shall have the right to take books from the library while the appropriation is continued." In 1837, then, the library became a free town library - owned and managed by the town, and open without charge to all its people. I have stated these facts in some detail, as it is no small honor to a town to have founded the first free public library in Massachusetts.

The library for some time increased but slowly. Its only regular resource was tlie town appropriation of thirty dollars. Once or twice this was omitted at the proper time, but the arrears were made up by the payment of two or three years' appropriations at once. From time to time there were gifts of money or books. Most of the books of the old Social Library came finally into the collection. In 1854 a bequest of $100 was received from the estate of Dr. Timothy Wellington, for half a century an honored and beloved physician of the town. He had been clerk of the trustees from the beginning and was a warm and devoted supporter of the library. His gift was invested and its income is used each year in buying books. In 1860 the town appropriation was increased to $100 and a few years later to $200. The library was at first kept in the house of Mr. Jonathan Dexter. After a time it was placed in the basement of the First Parish Church and later in the Town House.

In 1824 William Cutter died, leaving his property after the death of his wife to the town for the benefit of the public schools. His widow, Mary, died in 1836 and the gift then became available. Mary Cutter, with the same public spirit that her husband had shown, bequeathed to the town $200 for the benefit of the poor widows of the place. The " William Cutter School Fund '' amounted when received to $5019. It was somewhat increased in the settlement of accounts between Charlestown and West Cambridge in 1842, and is now $5354. The donor wisely placed no narrow restrictions upon his gilt - its income was to be appropriated " for the maintenance and support of schools." The " Poor Widows' Fund " has also been added to from time to time, and now amounts to $613.11, held for the benefit of the poor widows of the town. The town, appreciating these gifts of a childless couple, whose only motive could have been the hope of doing good, instructed the selectmen to contribute to the erection of the monument that marks their graves in the old cemetery.

In 1838 a new division of school districts was made. The larger part of the Centre and East Districts became the Union District ; the Northwest District was somewhat enlarged and the Southwest District remained unchanged. In the Union and Northwest Districts the old school-houses were sold and new ones built - each two stories in height and containing two school-rooms. The expense was in part defrayed from a windfall that had come to the town during the preceding year. It was then that the surplus revenue of the United States was distributed among the States. Massachusetts divided its share among its towns. At first West Cambridge thriftily voted to lend the fund thus acquired on the security of real estate mortgages, giving a preference to its own citizens as borrowers ; but wlien the school-houses had to be built the temptation was strong to use this money rather than to raise the necessary sum by taxation, and the treasurer was accordingly authorized to call it in again. In 1842 a new school-house was built in the South District. With new buildings a rough grading of the schools became practicable, and the system then established lasted for some years with little variation. In each district was a grammar school taught by a man and a primary school taught by a woman. Besides these, there was a little primary school in what was called the Wyman District. This district was in the old limits of Charlestown and most of it was included in Winchester in 1850, the part left within the borders of West Cambridge being then joined to the Union District. Then for a few years the Gardner School existed, which came to an end when Somerville was separated from Charlestown. Both of these schools were within the boundaries of Charlestown and were never large. In 1850 a school-house was erected in the East District - a part of the Union District - and a primary school established.

There were two terms in the school year, known as the summer and winter terms. The summer term began about the middle of .\pril and lasted till Thanksgiving, with a break of three weeks in August. After the Thanksgiving vacation of a week, the winter term began and continued till about the end of March, when two weeks of vacation brought round the summer term again. At the end of each terra came an examination by the School Committee, and frequently public exercises were held. Of the teachers of these schools, the late Daniel C. Brown, for many years master of the Centre School is perhaps now the best remembered.

In 1861 the Russell School - a four-room wooden building - was erected on the piece of land where its successor now stands, and was named after one of the oldest and most prominent families in town. Two years later a similar school-house was built in the Northwest District and received the name of the Cutter School, after another well-known family, with perhaps a special reference to the donor of the William Cutter School Fund. This building stood but three years before it was burned. Another building, still standing, was erected in its place in 1867. With this increase in schools, consequent upon the growth of the town, an improved system of grading became practicable.

In 1864 a High School was established. Six years earlier, William Cotting, an old resident of the town, who owned a large piece of land, through which Academy Street naw runs, gave to four trustees a lot of land to be held by them for the use and maintenance of a high school or academy. The plan of establishing such an academy had been for some time in contemplation among several leading citizens, who desired that their children might be educated at home, and Mr. Cotting's gift enabled them to proceed at once to carry out their intention. A school-house was built and the Cotting Academy opened. In order to secure the maintenance of a school of high character, Mr. Cotting made it a condition of his gift that no school kept on the premises should be of lower grade than a high school, " to the end that any pupil thereof, so desiring, shall at all times have opportunity of being thoroughly educated in such school in any and all the branches of learning required for admission into Harvard University at Cambridge and other American colleges." As the academy went successfully on, a desire naturally arose among many of ihe people of the town that it should become a public high school, so that its advantages might be more widely enjoyed. This was no new notion. As far back as 18:^8 the proposition had been made in townmeeting to establish such a school, and altbough the movement would have been premature then and for some time thereafter, many were looking forward to the time when such a step could wisely be taken. The population of the town was far below the number required by law to make the establishment of a high school compulsory, but nevertheless it was decided in 1864 that the Cotting Academy should be transferred to the town and become the Cotting High School. Mr. Cotting had foreseen that this change was likely to come to pass, and provided for it in his original

Its first principal was the late Charles O. Thompson, who remained three years at its head. His remarkable gifts as a teacher and organizer, exhibited afterwards on larger fields of duty, gave to the school a character that has lasted. His later career as principal of the Worcester Free Institute and of the Rose Polytechnic School, at Terre Haute, Ind., is well known. That it should have been cut short by death, while he was yet in his prime, is a matter of enduring regret, not only to the many who saw in it merely a serious loss to the cause of scientific education in the United States, but especially to those who knew him as teacher or as friend.

In order to put the account of the library and the schools in a more intelligible way, 1 have departed, somewhat, from the chronological order of events. Returning to the decade between 1830 and 1840, we find a considerable increase in the means of protection against fire. Beside the " Friendship," which was then kept in an engine-house situated by the brook in the burying-ground, near the road, the town possessed the " Good Intent," bought before 1832, and kept in the northwest part of the town. To these were soon added two more engines - the "Olive Branch," in 1835, and the " Enterprise," in 1836. The " Olive Branch " belonged in the upper end of the town, and the " Enterprise " in the southern part. Each machine was manned by a company appointed by the selectmen. The companies of the two older engines usually comprised about twenty men, while the newer ones had over thirty. The cost of the engines was paid in part by the town and in part by individuals. To these four succeeded the "Eureka" and the "Howard," in 1851. The "Howard" was kept in what is now Belmont, and became the property of the new town.

Sidewalks were coming into fashion in 1834, in which year the town authorized abutters to build sidewalks at their own expense, and to protect them by posts and ornamental trees. In 1835 an appropriation was made to pay for ringing of the church bell, half an hour before sunrise, at noon and at nine in the evening. A facetious person, acting apparently on the principle that there could not be too much of a good thing, managed to get a vote through the meeting that the bell should be rung also at midnight, an improvement that proved fatal to the original plan, as all the votes were reconsidered. Two years later the proposition reappeared in a form less alarming to late risers, and the custom that still exists was established of having the bell rung at noon and at nine o'clock at night. In 1839 a vote was passed, authorizing the people to dig wells in the highways where they would not impede travel.

On February 25, 1842, the town received a considerable accession of territory from the addition of all that part of Charlestown that lay northwest of

Alewife Brook. The people of this tract were joined by many ties to their West Cambridge neighbors, and it is only surprising that so obviously desirable a union did not take place long before. This annexation gave the town the largest area it ever had. A few years later, in 1850, it lost, much against its will, a portion of its extreme northern corner when the town of Winchester was formed.

In 1843 land was bought on the Medford Road for a new cemetery, which soon after received the name of Mt. Pleasant. Since its establishment comparatively few interments have been made in the old burial-ground.

In 1846 an event took place which was to have a profound effect upon the fortunes of the town - the opening of the railroad. Hitherto the public means of conveyance to Boston had been by stagecoach. For many years, on three days of the week, the stage which carried the New Hampshire mail afforded a means of reaching Boston. It passed through West Cambridge late in the afternoon and did not come back until the next morning, when it again rolled heavily through the streets of the town on its long return journey. More frequent trips were made by the Concord coach, which was established at a later date. This conveyance ran daily to the city. Whoever desired to go in it left his name beforehand at the tavern at the corner of the Medford road, and the coach called at his door. The journey was too expensive to be often indulged in, for the fare was fifty cents; and the few persons whose business called them frequently to Boston traveled in their own chaises. A later and formidable rival to the Concord stage-coach was the omnibus, which ran no farther than West Cambridge. This conveyance gave the public great accommodation, for it went to Boston and returned twice every week-day, and passengers had to pay but twenty-five cents a trip. But omnibus and stage-coach alike were destined to disappear before the locomotive engine.

It was in 1844 that the first serious movement to introduce a railroad into West Cambridge had its beginuing. The plan then was to construct a branch track from the Fitchburg or Fresh Pond Road in Cambridge to a point near the centre of West Cambridge. . A public meeting was held, committees were api pointed and surveys were made. Before any definite action was taken, however, people in Lexington began to move to bring about tlie building of a road to their town. The citizens of both places united finally in a compromise, according to which one road was to be built, to run through West Cambridge to Lexington. This arrangement was sanctioned by the Legislature, and the Lexington and West Cambridge Branch Railroad became incorporated March 24, 1845. It was opened for public travel in August, 1846.

The accommodation afforded by the new railroad would hardly in these days excite more than a moderate amount of gratitude. However, it was a great advance on anything that had existed before, towards making the town accessible from the neighboring city. From that time West Cambridge began noticeably to take on the character of a place of residence for those whose daily work lay outside its borders.

In 1846 a committee was appointed to name the various streets, which had, up to that time, gone by the old names that had been given them by popular usage. The committee showed excellent taste and judgment in the performance of that work and the names thus given them - as Medford and Mystic, W&rren and Pleasant - still designate most of our older streets.

At about this time some indications appear that there was the same difficulty in the enforcement of laws against the illegal sale of liquor that has been found elsewhere and at other times. We find a special committee appointed in 1843 to enforce the laws as to the sale of liquors, and three years later the selectmen are authorized to prosecute those who might illegally sell ardent spirits and other intoxicating liquors.

Dogs come into the foreground in 1849 as objects of public disapproval. At a meeting held January 1st it was voted to petition the Legislature to protect the inhabitants of the Commonwealth "from the annoyance and danger now experienced by the great and alarming increase of dogs," and by way of aiding in the cause an ordinance was passed providing for the licensing and muzzling of these animals.

1851 was the year of ihe tornado, - an event which deserves to be described in some detail. It occurred on Friday, the 22d day of August. Its track was from southwest to northeast, curving gradually to eastward. It began its course in Wayland, and then passed over Weston, Waltham, West Cambridge, Medford, Maiden, Saugus, Swampscott and Lynn, and thence to the sea. In all these places some damage was done, but Medford and West Cambridge bore the brunt of the storm. Those who saw it described it as a dark cloud sweeping over the surface of the country with frightful speed ; its base now touching the earth and now bounding up for a little, to return again farther on. Its shape was variously compared to a spreading elm, to an upright column, to an hourglass, and to an inverted cone - discrepancies probably to be attributed to the different positions of the observers, to the excitement of the moment and perhaps to actual changes of shape. One eye-witness vividly compared it to an elephant's trunk, waving a little from side to side and sucking up everything that came in its way. Its path was straight for the most part, with curious eddies and turns here and there. It left behind it in West Cambridge a devastated swath which was, in most places, from thirty to fifty rods wide, although the track was at some points wider and at some narrower than this.

The storm occurred at about half-pa,st five o'clock on a hot, sultry summer afternoon. There had been during the day a light southwest wind, but for an hour before the tornado there was an almost perfect calm. Without any warning the storm struck West Cambridge at the premises of Mr. James Brown, on the Waltham line, and swept across the town, tearing its way through woods, orchards and corn-fields. It crossed Pleasant Street near what is now the Belmont boundary, and went straight on across the land of Captain Hopkins, of Dr. Wellington, and of the other residents on the eastern side of the street, then over the northwest corner of Spy Pond, demolishing the ice-houses at the water's edge, then across the highway at a point near the present line of Franklin Street, wreaking destruction on store, school-house and dwellings, and so on till it crossed Mystic River, about fifty rods below the Medford Street bridge. The tornado lasted a very few moments, but in that time it did damage in West Cambridge to the extent of nearly twenty-five thousand dollars. Happily no lives were lost and no serious personal injuries inflicted.

This storm had several noticeable features much commented 6n at the time. As it crossed the pond it took up a good deal of water ; and this, mingled with the sand and gravel of the railway embankment and the dust of the highway, splashed everything with a liberal coating of gravelly mud. When there was any vertical motion it was a lifting motion - things were taken up into the air, not beaten down to the earth. Trees generally resisted the disintegrating force of the wind, but buildings were racked or shattered. In Medford, where very careful observations were made, few traces of rotary motion were found, but in one place in West Cambridge, where a cornfield was flattened before the blast, the corn lay with the tops pointed in and to windward, on both sides of the central line of the track, as if two enormous wheels with vertical axes, turning in opposite directions and playing into each other like cog-wheels, had passed through the field. The people gathered in a public meeting three days afterward and raised a substantial sum to help the sufferers from the storm.

In 1852 a Town House was built, the first and only one that the town has possessed. Before 1840 townmeetings were usually held in the meeting-house of the First Parish. In that year a new meeting-house was built, the vestry of which was known as Parish Hall and here the town held its meetings for a dozen years. In 1849 there was a movement for the erection of a Town House, but no results immediately followed. The proposition met with a more favorable reception in 1852, when a committee of leading citizens was chosen to select a site and erect a building. The Town House was completed in time for the March meeting in 1853. Outside it presented substantially the same appearance that it does now, except that its brick walls were covered with a stucco which, until it began to wear away with time, moderately resembled stone. A broad flight of stairs ran directly up from the front door to the entrance of the hall, the anterooms of which served to accommodate the town officers and the Juvenile Library. The lower floor was leased for business purposes.

The Belmont controversy began in 1854, and was by far the most important business that the town had to deal with for the next five years. The details of the movement that resulted in the formation of a new town from portions of three old ones belongs properly to the history of Belmont. To West Cambridge the plan meant the loss of about one-third of its territory, one-fifth of its population and a quarter of its taxable property, and it naturally met with a vigorous resistance. Committees were chosen each year to oppose the scheme before the General Court. The case is famous among Massachusetts town divisions. Legislature after Legislature rejected the bill, and year after year the Belmont petitioners appeared at the State House, to be met by the remonstrants from West Cambridge, Watertown and Waltham. At last, on March 18, 1859, the bill incorporating the town of Belmont became a law, and West Cambridge had to submit to dismemberment with as good a grace as it might. The lapse of thirty years has made the bitterness of the controversy only a memory, but it is difficult not to feel a certain regret that those fertile farms are not still a part of our town.

Gas was introduced into the town at this time - the West Cambridge Gas-Light Company being incorporated and allowed to lay its pipes in the streets in 1854, although the town did not assume the expense of street-lighting until 1859. In 1857 the town voted to petition the Legislature for the establishment of a horse railroad. In consequence of this desire the West Cambridge Horse Railroad Company was incorporated May 28th of the same year, and its cars soon began their hourly trips to Boston. Electricity was introduced as a motive-power on this railway in the summer of 1889.

In 1856 a clock was placed in the tower of the new meeting-house of the First Parish. April 5, 1860, the West Cambridge Savings Bank was incorporated.